Cabbage Stuffed with Gefilte Fish
Every year at passover, I make too much gefilte fish. In fact, when I made gefilte fish one year with Jackie Lyden on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, I used 27 pounds of fish! Hadassa Schneerson Carlebach, a fascinating woman (see page 140) who worked with her late father making and providing matzo and other kosher food for observant Jews in detention camps in France, gave me this recipe for gefilte-fish-stuffed cabbage. Flavored with slowly cooked peppers and tomatoes, it is a great way to use up leftover patties. Even avowed gefilte-fish detesters love this dish. A cooking tip: I put the cabbage in the freezer for two days, defrost it for a day, and then use the limp leaves to wrap the fish.
Recipe information
Yield
8 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Remove eight leaves from the head of defrosted cabbage, keeping them whole. (It’s easiest to do this by cutting out the cabbage heart and then peeling away the leaves.) If the leaves aren’t limp and pliable, place them in a large bowl with 1/2 cup water, and microwave, covered, for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. Shred about 2 cups of the remaining cabbage.
Step 2
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or other medium-sized, oven-safe casserole. Add the shredded cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, celery, jalapeño, and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
Step 3
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Step 4
Put a gefilte-fish patty in the center of a cabbage leaf. Wrap it like an envelope—first the bottom up, then the sides into the middle, then the top down. Repeat with the remaining seven cabbage leaves and gefilte-fish patties.
Step 5
When the tomato-and-pepper mixture has finished cooking, nestle the stuffed cabbage, seam side down, into this sauce. Bake, covered, for about 90 minutes. Serve with the fresh parsley sprinkled on top.
